Deferred judgment handed down in child endangerment case

Vallery Mae Thomas, age 21, of Mason City will serve no jail time on charges of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and child endangerment.

The charges are in relation to an alleged incident on November 8th, 2011 in which marijuana was found by law enforcement within reach of her (at the time) 8 month old infant.

As part of a child abuse investigation by the Department of Human Services drug tested her daughter. The results of the drug test found a positive test result for marijuana in her infant’s system.

Court records show Vallery Thomas made a plea change on June 11th to the class D felony count of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and aggravated misdemeanor count of child endangerment.

At the scheduled sentencing hearing on Tuesday, July 24th, presiding District Court Judge Colleen D. Weiland handed down deferred judgments on both charges.

Judge Weiland sentenced Thomas to 3 years of probation with the Iowa Department of Corrections and suspended a $750 civil penalty for the possession of marijuana with intent to deliver charge.

Judge Weiland sentenced Thomas to 2 years of probation with the Iowa Department of Corrections and imposed a $625 civil penalty for the child endangerment charge.

In addition Vallery Thomas was ordered to pay a $125 law enforcement initiative surcharge and $381 in court cost and lawyer fees. A class D felony count of failure to affix a drug tax stamp was dismissed by Judge Weiland.

The infant’s father, 23-year-old Benjamin Arthur Janssen of Mason City, is charged with the same crimes as Thomas. Court records show he entered guilty pleas in his case June 4th and had been scheduled to be sentenced on July 24th. However on July 23rd his sentencing was continued until September 5th at 9:20am.

The infant remains in both parents custody and DHS has taken steps to insure the future safety of the child.

Vallery Mae Thomas

Benjamin Arthur Janssen

SUBJECT IS INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY.

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What gets me is Pot Parents, as they’ve been dubbed in NIM, always offer up excuses to justify their behavior.
She didn’t go without…when accused of spending $$$ in their drugs instead of her. Drugs found w/in reaching distance…”its not like she could actually get to it”. We never smoked w/ her in the rm (doubtful)…notice the unspoken admittance they smoked w/ her in the house.
They aren’t sorry for what they did, only they got caught. They didn’t “change” cuz they wanted to, cuz they realized what they were doing was wrong…only cuz LE & DHS are on their backs. I’ll bet as soon as they’re no longer under close scrutiny they’ll go back to their idiotic child neglecting pot smoking ways.

Actually yea it is bull but many people who don’t deserve it lose their kids with little to no evidence of whatever it is…drugs, abuse, etc. n then u see people who need their children taken away for everyone’s safety and well being n it just doesn’t happen. The whole system is entirely screwed up. Gotta love DHS. I don’t know these two…just commenting on the way these things seem to go. Sad!

With everyone hoping that Judge Weiland goes away– remember that when its time to vote!!! If u feel seriously about her leniency– vote to have her removed or do not vote her in– do not write her name in…… She is responsible for so much of the trouble in our community!! I agree- the police are working their tails off on the drug problems and the system lets them go… enough is enough alreay!!!!!

Yes, they are guilty of these charges & yes they have done a complete turn around since their arrests. Both are working full-time at good paying jobs & the baby is well taken care of. I’m very proud of these 2 for turning their lives around quickly & becoming great parents. And to whoever had your kids taken away on here – it takes A LOT of evidence to take a child away, you must be doing something horribly wrong.

Yes thank you Erica. That’s exactly what I was trying to get across. I’m not saying excuse the actions of the parents but they’ve learner from it and have moved on. They are both doing extremely well and their child is perfectly ok,normal,aand dorable. Let the family be.

Ok…for one I know both parents and they’re honest to goodness good parents. They both bust their assessed to provide for their daughter and she never wants for anything. As far as the drugs in the babies system, anyone with half a brain knows they test hair folicels for weed which means she could have been anywhere in the house…..including in her bedroom, two rooms away. Its not like they were blowing the smoke into her face.

Actually Anonymous (aka Ben Jannsen) DHS uses hair follicles because it only covers drugs ingested. Furthermore most do not like to use them for marijuana because low level users can pass, so apparently your infant was an everyday toker. How lazy could you be not to just leave the damn room and smoke.

Why did you ask for a continuance in your sentencing on Monday was Judge Weiland not available or did you just want to throw Mallory in front of you to make sure you got the plea agreement the DA promised?

“anyone with half a brain knows they test hair folicels for weed which means she could have been anywhere in the house…..including in her bedroom, two rooms away” – oh so since it could have happened 2 rooms away that makes it all ok – the drugs shouldn’t be in the home and around the child period! Your an idiot!

Wtf?! These f-ing idiots were on NIM defending their convicted sex offender friend…that alone proves they are unfit to make good parenting decisions.
Glad to know there are judges that’ll allow parents that put drugs as a higher priority than their BABY to keep their child & do no jail time. Maybe if the kid had tested pisitive for Meth the judge would’ve done something.
The judge is an f-ing idiot…these 2 are f-ing wastes of DNA. No wonder ppl don’t have any confidence in the system.
Everyone should pray for that poor kid. Probably doesn’t have a chance in hell of growing up to be happy and well adjusted with such f-wads raising her.

Judges stand for retention election near the end of their term of office. In a retention election, judges do not have opponents. Instead, voters decide whether or not to retain a judge in office. If a judge receives a simple majority of “yes” votes, the judge may serve another full term.

The Iowa State Bar Association “Judicial Plebiscite” evaluates each judge on the ballot on a wide range of attributes. The results of this evaluation are available online at http://www.iowabar.org one month prior to the general election.

Information about:
District Court Judge, Colleen D. Weiland: District 2A
Judge Weiland, Mason City, was appointed to the district bench in July of 2007. As a graduate of the University of Iowa, she earned her bachelor’s degree in 1991 and her law degree, with distinction, in 1994. She has done internships with the Dubuque County attorney’s office and the Iowa attorney general. Judge Weiland practiced law in Mason City from 1994-1998 and served as a judicial magistrate from 1997- 2007. She is a member of the Cerro Gordo County, District 2A, Iowa State, and American Bar Associations.

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!! THIS GIRL GETS AWAY WITH DRUGS IN HER CHILDS SYSTEM AND SOMEONE LIKE I MYSELF NEVER TESTED POSITIVE FOR DRUGS OR MY KIDS NEVER TESTED POSITIVE FOR DRUGS N IVE NEVER ABUSED MY CHILDREN N I GET MY KIDS TAKEN N THIS B**** GETS AWAY WITH IT!! WOW!!!! THROW THESE JUDGES OUT LIKE FORREAL THIS CRAP IS GETTING LITERALLY RIDICULOUS!!!!!!! IF UR GNA LET PPL GO U BETTER MAKE IT FAIR FOR EVERYONE!!! I HOPE SOMEONE PUTS ON A LAW SUITE SOON 🙂 🙂 🙂

Oh stop your bitching and moaning. If you’re so bent out of shape about this because of what happened to you, why don’t YOU file the damn lawsuit you’re so eager to have someone file? Step up for shut up!

So, what exactly does it take to ensure the safety of a baby? Drugs in its system, oh don’t worry about that. What’s next? Them being so high they forget the baby is on the roof of the car? Them being so high they can’t afford food? Them being so high, they forget to feed it and go out and buy weed, and forget to come home for a couple days? These people are cleary unfit to be parents. The guy has Down’s.

WTF…Drugs are found in an infant’s system and these losers get no jail time??? I would think the DHS workers would lose motivation in pursuing these dirtbags. Of course, another Weiland case. Vote this judge out!!!